right now in retail its all about CHRISTMAS.....im getting catalogs and lots of calls from the reps... ITS TIME TO MAKE THE DECISIONS AND MAKE THOSE ORDERS....BUT FIRST THE HARD PART... its time to figure out what i want to do this year, what themes, how much money , and take my wild guess about the mental climate of our customers this year...... will gm fall and leave the whole midwest in deeper doodoo?
and i have to try and remember whats left from last year.....LOTS....and lots of it is still really good....plus i just bought a 1000$ pile of really high end christmas from a store going out.... 100 $ garlands and stuff like that that i wouldnt normally have..... I DID TAKE GREAT AMOUNTS OF CHRISTMAS NOTES... LAST YEAR..and should know what sold out and what didnt go........
im just pretty overwhelmed....and wish i had someone to go over all this with.....dh just cant even go there..and jon just rolls his eyes.....they know we need all that money but thats about as far as they can go on making the plans......the staff mainly wants to do what i want....every year i wish we had a A FLORIST ON BOARD....they know what im talking about....
i never do budgets....i have no history of that..... but i know we sell about 40 to 50,000 of christmas product mainly in november and some in december......so i plan to get enough to do that again....roughly.my number decisions go like this: .. my best guess is that we and have about 10,000 of good christmas product on hand and if i buy another 10 that makes 40 retail so i better add another 5 or 10.....i figure to get to 40 i need at least 50 on hand.....
so thats my number....thats what im trying to spend in the smartest way possible....
so far my real buying is aimed at more towards gifts and what will still be good in january.like clocks frames useful stuff......and a little less in actual christmas...... i am so over cheap looking christmas crap made in china that my country customers with kids and budgets are supposed to pay 9$ for... like resin a nd lots of the ohio wholesale type stuff......and wont that kind of thing be in hobby lobby at half price in october? but what does that leave to buy????
SO MY GOAL HAS TO BE REALLY NICE CHRISTMAS THINGS THAT FIT EVERYONES BUDGET AND DONT LOOK LIKE HOBBY LOBBY.......
and also to really think thru some of the good promotions ive heard about.... and pick the right ones...
AND REPEAT OUR HUGE CHRISTMAS OPENHOUSE AND THE WOW FACTOR....we had such a good turnout last year.... even tho the economy was on everyones minds.... and we got so many compliments....its a big challenge to pull it off again....
one more problem....in past years ive always been on a retail chat room with other stores that talked and talked about this huge retail subject.....and this year i dont have that....i miss it a lot.....i have learned so much from my cyber retail chat places and the great people on them....mostly gone or scattered now.... all this was on country business forum...the old one ....now its all different and not anything great like they had before......and of course they removed all the christmas discussions when they threw away the archives.....
now im planning to join giftbeat..... it sounds pretty good....even if a lot more mainstream and inside the box than our store.... but ive heard good things about it..
5 comments:
Gosh Ann, Thanks for posting about Christmas! I've been trying to figure it out for months and now I have to decide.
I don't want a lot of Christmas and not a lot of $$$ for inventory, so how do you get the wow factor?
I don't want the resin, clocks and frames aren't too great for me, so now what?
I'd better get some direction soon. Who knows what the economy will do now, last year all He!! broke loose in july and august. I hope the worst is over.
One question, do you think it will ever be the same? I hear all the time, I have 20 tubs of Christmas, I don't want anymore and I'm giving money for Christmas for gas and tires, etc. Yikes!
I need about 3 themes instead of buying all over the board.
Ann, I know how you feel. Not quite the volume but coming up with the themes and implementing them with the wow factor.
So far, what I have seen, doesn't do much for me. We usually have 5-7 trees but not sure what to do this year. That isn't even taking in the economy, just what I am excited about.
I always enjoy your blog.
Thanks, Laura
I am having trouble knowing what to buy also. So, much of it ends up at Hobby Lobby or Gordmans. I've commented to you before that our store is similar to yours in types of products but on a much, much smaller scale. I'm finding customers are wanting reasonable merchandise, but it's hard to find. The companies I usually order from haven't really came out with much new this year. ???
I'm going to stick with a lot of "vintage & primitive" smalls. Old Fashioned, timeless Christmas is what sold for me last year.
Good Luck to us all!
Laurie
i hear you laura......its really hard to hit people with average incomes who want great stuff..at reasonable prices....
and we know they shop everywhere....
i did just order some arks that will retail at about 60$ from esc....but not very many....sad to say im nearly dropping raz , io love their stuff but its just out of reach for my winter people...
im like homestead and thinking in my 3 main themes instead of all over the place..
..dang!!!.ann
i appreciate your comments....but see i got all the names mixed up....sorry...and i dont know how to edit my comments....
ann
Post a Comment